To start this lesson, I need to make a brief pause because there’s something I need to tell you. Come closer, it’s a secret.

Until now, we’ve had lessons about motivation, and motivating our audience and showing our own motivation. We’ve been talking about transformation, changing our audience between the beginning and the end of our presentation. And we’ve been talking about their reactions just recently.

All these concepts belong to one greater concept that is “Storytelling.” But I didn’t want to use the storytelling word beforehand because it’s abused these days. To me storytelling is the foundation of the structure of any presentation. It’s something actionable and it’s something that is in every part of this course. 

If our presentation was a mountain, we would be right at the peak, at the highest point. In storytelling terms we call this a “climax” but what is it in practice? It’s the high point of your presentation. It’s the summit of your delivery and your talk.

It is the moment where you shine the most light and you provide the most insight to your audience. It’s the moment where you shower your audience with information and you provide them the most data, and it is the moment that delivers the most transformation and helps the core transformation of your presentation the most.

Your audience will understand this moment. They will know that the motivation and the reactions are part of a buildup, and this buildup leads to the climax, at the peak.

Your audience will pay more attention to what you say. They will be excited by the most important concepts. Your audience will also remember much, much better what you say.

They understand another thing, it’s downhill from there. The peak represents the beginning of the end of your presentation. So, you find yourself on stage, you energize your audience, the energy level is at the highest possible and what do you do? Well, you start preparing to leave the stage because the climax is something that has to last for a very, very brief moment.

Summary:

• You must mark the highest point of your presentation
• You should structure your whole presentation with storytelling in mind
• After the high point you have to start heading downhill and make sure that you leave the stage in a timely manner

Further Study Materials

• Business Storytelling: The Definitive Guide